The subject matter herein relates generally to radio frequency (RF) connector systems.
Due to their favorable electrical characteristics, coaxial cables and connectors have grown in popularity for interconnecting electronic devices and peripheral systems. A typical application utilizing coaxial cable connectors is an RF application having RF plug connectors designed to work at radio frequencies in the UHF and/or VHF range. RF plug connectors are used with coaxial cables and are designed to maintain the shielding that the coaxial design offers. RF plug connectors are typically designed to minimize the change in transmission line impedance at the connection by utilizing contacts that have a short contact length.
Typically, one or more of the RF plug connectors are mounted to a circuit board of an electronic device at an input/output port of the device and extends through an exterior housing of the device for connection with a coaxial cable connector. In conventional systems, the RF plug connectors may be individually soldered to the circuit board. For example, the RF plug connectors typically include an inner conductor, which is coaxially disposed within an outer conductor with a dielectric material separating the inner and outer conductors, the inner conductor being soldered to the circuit board. The coaxial cable connectors are then mated with corresponding board-mounted RF plug connectors, typically on an individual basis.
A need remains for an RF plug connector system having RF plug connectors that may be assembled to a circuit board in a cost effective and reliable manner and mated with RF cable connectors in a cost effective and reliable manner.